Monday Mornings with Madison

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Staff Management

April 2, 2012

Sleep Your Way To Success – Part 1

Issue #226

What do the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker grounding and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger all have in common (besides being major catastrophes that cost millions and took lives)? Individuals who played a critical role in what went wrong were sleep deprived at the time of each accident. There is also a link between lack of sleep and medical errors in hospitals. The Institute of Medicine reports that over a million injuries and 50,000 to 100,000 deaths occur each year from preventable medical errors, many of which are believed to be attributed to insufficient sleep. Likewise, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes in the U.S. annually are the direct result of driver fatigue. Also, the National Transportation Safety Board estimates that 70% of commercial aviation fatal accidents are related to human error and that operating crew fatigue is responsible for 15-20% of the overall accident rate.

While employee fatigue may not seem like a major concern for the average business, employees who do not get enough sleep — whether for just one night or over the course of weeks to months or on a regular basis — can significantly worsen productivity, work quality, customer service, and safety. Employee sleep deprivation can negatively impact mood, ability to focus, and ability to access higher-level cognitive functions. Sleep-deprived employees are less productive, creative, efficient, effective and engaging.
But just how much does lack of sleep affect a person’s productivity and mental ability to function? Continue reading →

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March 12, 2012

When Business Systems Fail

Issue #223

Systems are a structured way of doing something so that it can be done the same way consistently. Most companies put business systems in place to do the “heavy lifting” in terms of performance and maintenance. Companies without business systems are generally less successful than companies that have such systems in place. No matter how many talented people are on a team, without business systems that work regularly, a business cannot gauge how it is doing in the sea of competition and in which areas of the business it needs to improve. Without business systems in place, a company is doomed to repeat mistakes and customers are forced to tolerate inconsistent quality and service.

Business systems can be a great support in businesses. But, like most things in life, they have to be monitored and nurtured, and sometimes even repaired. Poor performance and frustration within an organization is usually a sign of broken systems or processes. According to a law of physics, all things naturally tend to break down over time. That includes business systems. When they do, the business must repair, improve, or elevate the business system to a higher level of functioning in order to be successful. Continue reading →

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March 5, 2012

Persnickety or Perfectionist?

Issue #222

The best leaders are skilled at knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every person on their team and then assigning work that capitalizes on strengths and avoids weaknesses. But the truth is that there are many traits that can be both a strength and a weakness, depending on how it is channeled and applied to certain jobs or tasks. Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked at a series of such traits. Procrastination. Impatience. Competitiveness. Unreasonableness. At first glance, these may seem like flaws. But when properly channeled or applied in the right situations, each of these so-called ‘flaws’ can also be ‘qualities’.

Is the reverse also true? Can something generally viewed as a quality also be a flaw? The goal with virtually any quality or flaw is to channel and harness it for whatever value is offers without allowing it to become a detriment. Take perfectionism, for example. Many people admit freely to being perfectionists. It’s seen by many as perhaps a ‘desirable flaw’ in that most successful people shamelessly claim to be perfectionists. If one must admit to a flaw, that’s the flaw to have. But is it always good to be a perfectionist and can even that trait become problematic? If so, how can one best manage a perfectionist? Continue reading →

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February 27, 2012

Keeping All the Plates Spinning

Issue #221

There is circus act in which a person starts a plate spinning on a stick. Then on the table next to it, he starts another plate spinning. And then another and another until the person has dozens of plates all spinning on sticks at the same time. Every so often, the person has to go back to the original plate and spin it some more as it loses momentum and starts to wobble before crashing to the ground. In order to keep all the plates spinning, the person must race back and forth amongst the plates, adding some velocity as each plate, in its turn, begins to slow down. The Guiness World Record for plate spinning was achieved in 1996 with 108 plates spinning simultaneously. Anyone who has ever watched plate spinning feels the anxiety build as plates on the opposite ends look like they are about to teeter off their sticks, but the plate spinner races back and forth just in time to give each another spin.

Even those who have never seen the plate spinning act can probably relate to it. For most people, life is a lot like a plate spinning act thanks to today’s fast-paced world. There is a constant pressure to race back and forth between tasks, responsibilities and chores to keep all the plates spinning. Work. Chores. Honey-do lists. Errands. Family demands. Children’s activities. Doctor visits. Dental checkups. Tax prep. With so much to do, there’s often a plate in the daily grind that is about to teeter off its stick and come crashing to the ground. We race to give that plate another spin just in time to keep it from falling. With so much to do, it is easy to lose track. Thanks to technology, though, there are increasingly better tools to help track and keep all our proverbial plates spinning…. especially at work. Continue reading →

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February 20, 2012

Impatience

Issue #220

They say patience is a virtue. Yet, in today’s fast-paced world, impatience may also be a virtue. Impatience has led to many innovations. Once upon a time, the U.S. Postal System was considered one of the most efficient in the world. First class mail could be sent across the country in just 2-3 days. But impatience led people to develop and adopt email as a much faster form of written communication. First class mail, now dubbed snail mail, was relegated to greeting cards and hard copies of official documents. This impatience to work faster has also led to other innovations such as the fax machine, document scanner and software that allow documents to be uploaded FTP sites. The entire industry of overnight package delivery is another child of impatience. And, with each step business takes to do things faster, society’s patience grows shorter and actually encourages even more impatience.

What about when it comes to people? If patience is a virtue, can impatience also be a virtue? Yes. Impatience is not only a force that drives advancement in science and business, but it can even improve certain social situations. The trick is to recognize when a situation would benefit from either impatience or patience, and apply the correct force accordingly. The goal is not to allow human nature to simply select one or the other at will or at random. When and how can impatience be harnessed and when is it best not to be impatient? Continue reading →

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February 13, 2012

Inflexibility

Issue #219

When Apple went shopping for chip makers years ago for their iPhones, Apple didn’t select Intel chips. Why? One of the primary reasons given by Jobs was that the Intel Corporation was “just really slow. They’re like a steamship, not very flexible.” What he meant is that the company was slow to change and adapt according to its customers’ needs. The comment reflects the importance, in today’s rapid-paced world, of being flexible and nimble. In business, inflexibility is viewed as the ultimate Achilles heel.
What about in people? Is inflexibility in people as much of a flaw as it is in companies? Generally, when a person is labeled as inflexible, it is meant as a criticism. Whether the reference is to a person’s physical flexibility or their intractable personality, inflexibility or rigidity is generally deemed as a negative. But it turns out that inflexibility can actually be beneficial, both physically and as a personality trait…. at times. To find out when it pays to be inflexible, Continue reading →

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February 6, 2012

“No” Problem

Issue #218

Most overworked, overloaded and highly stressed people all share one fundamental characteristic (let’s just call it what it is… a flaw). They don’t know how to say “No.” They might be able to muster the chutzpah to say an unassertive “no” once in a while, but they either don’t stand their ground afterward, or they just don’t say “no” often enough. While a “Can Do” attitude or a “Never say No” disposition is generally considered by managers to be a desirable quality in staff, the truth is that those “always say yes” people often take on more than they can chew and that can be a problem both for the employee and the manager.

While there is nothing wrong with wanting to please others and be helpful — in fact it is an essential part of any functioning workplace and all civilized and compassionate societies — the problem arises when the word “No” is never used. The problem is that there typically aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything everyone asks of the average “yes man” or “yes woman.” For those people with a “No” problem, it means that some requests either aren’t getting done, aren’t done in a timely manner or aren’t being done well. At work, that can be a problem for both employee and employer. Here are some strategies to make it a bit easier to say “No” assertively. Continue reading →

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January 30, 2012

The Power of Procrastination

Issue #217

Procrastination has been defined as the act of replacing high-priority or important actions with tasks of lower priority, and putting off important tasks to a later time. Some industrial psychologists consider it procrastination if the action is counterproductive, needless, and delaying. Others consider it procrastination if a course of action is voluntarily delayed despite expecting to be worse off for the delay.

Regardless of the definition, procrastination and procrastinators are generally viewed in a purely negative light. However, the truth is that every person procrastinates sometimes. But, according to Psychology Today, only about 20 percent of people are true procrastinators… those who consistently avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions. How do you know if you or one of your employees is part of the 20% that are true procrastinators? And, if so, is procrastination always a bad thing? Continue reading →

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January 9, 2012

Something Old; Something New; Something Borrowed… and Now Something True Blue

Issue #214

For the last two weeks, we took an old English rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, And A Sixpence in your Shoe.” and applied it business. We started by examining the old – but valuable – marketing strategy of PR to promote brand continuity and investigated a new, related marketing trend called Brand Journalism that is helping customers connect to businesses in a new way. Then we borrowed the strategy of Corporate Giving as a way to help businesses connect with and engage consumers.

However, sometimes the smartest thing a business can do is go back to the basics. Despite the many changes in technology, communications, and marketing over the last 25 years, the fundamentals of running a sound business remain unchanged. This week, we’ll look at some ‘true blue’ business practices essential to any organization. These ten strategies are a must for long-term business success. Continue reading →

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December 12, 2011

Words of Wisdom from Steve Jobs – Part 2

Issue #210

Last week, we began a three-part series reflecting on the Commencement Speech Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios, delivered to Stanford University students on June 12, 2005. His speech basically told three stories. Each was a message unto itself. The first part was about trying new things without worrying about connecting the dots.

This week, we’ll read the second part of his Commencement Speech – just as he spoke it and offer a little further insight. In this story, he talked about finding and doing what you love. This advice is not revolutionary, but neither is it necessarily common or easy to achieve. Mr. Jobs found his passion, lost it, and then found it again. He and the world were the better for it. Continue reading →

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